The present invention relates to a card adapter and, more particularly, a highly reliable card adapter for receiving a first memory card and connecting to an electrical connector configured to receive a second memory card.
Diverse electronic appliances and devices such as a personal computers, cell phones, PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants), digital cameras and vehicular navigation systems include a card connector, respectively, which is adapted for using various types of memory cards including SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, MMC® (Multi Media Card), SD® (Secure Digital) cards, miniSD® cards, xD-Picture Cards®, Memory Sticks®, Memory Stick Duo®, SmartMedia®, T-Flash (Trans-Flash) memory cards, and microSD® cards.
In recent years, as electronic devices and appliances have become more diversified, memory cards also tend to become more diversified. Therefore, card connectors have been proposed that can receive not only a single type but also multiple types of memory cards. Such card connectors are rather large and difficult to mount especially on electronic devices of small size. Hence, a card adapter has been proposed that enables a memory card to be mated to a card connector compatible with other types of memory cards (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) Application 2006-32097).
Referring to FIG. 15, a card adapter includes lower cover 910 having lower plate 911 and upper case 920 having an upper plate 921. The card adapter has a molded insert member 930 integrally formed with a plurality of terminal members 950 having one end configured to engage contact pads on a memory card (not shown) and the other end configured interconnect to terminals (not shown) of a card connector (not shown). The molded insert member 930 is fixed between the lower cover 910 and the upper cover 920. A cover 940 is pivotably mounted on the molded insert member 930.
With a memory card loaded in a space between the lower case 910 and the upper case 920 and the cover 940 closed, the card adapter may be mated to the card connector in order to electrically connect the contact pads on the memory card with the terminals of the card connector via the terminal member 950.
The conventional card adapter holds the molded insert member 930 by sandwiching it between lower cover 910 and upper cover 920. This adds to the overall thickness of the conventional card adapter and makes it sometimes difficult to insert such a conventional card adapter into a card connector that is compatible with low-profile, small memory cards. The molded insert member 930 may be integrally formed with the terminal members 950 in order to electrically connect the contact pads of the memory card with the terminals of the card connector and, as such, covers the circumference of the terminal members 950. This substantially adds to the thickness of the molded insert member 930 and, as a result, the overall thickness of the conventional card adapter